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I American Red Cross 



This Side the Trenches 

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American Red Cross 



By Karl de Schweinitz 



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Foreword 

This book is addressed chiefly to the members of 
the young peoples' societies of the churches, and has 
been written at the request of their representatives. 
It is designed to present the purposes and ideals of 
Home Service, which the American Red Cross is ex- 
tending to the families of thousands of our soldiers and 
sailors. 

Home Service is national in scope. In some parts of 
the country it has been so thoroughly developed that 
for them the pages that follow are a record of accom- 
plishment. In other places where the work is new or 
still in process of organization, 'This Side the Trenches' 
is rather a statement of ideals to be achieved. 

Although Home Service is conducted almost entirely 
by volunteers, its direction requires a more special 
training and preparation than other activities of the 
Red Cross. Its success depends upon the devotion of 
men and women who are willing to equip themselves 
through instruction or to work under trained supervi- 
sion. Home Service is a distinctive enterprise, not 
duplicating but cooperating with other established 
agencies. 

The writing of this book has been made possible by 
the generous interest of The Charity Organization 
Society of the City of New York, which contributed the 
services of the author. 

W. Frank Persons, 

Director General of Civilian Relief 

American Red Cross 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

Chapter I 
This Side the Trenches 

From camp, from battlellne, from shipboard the 
soldiers and sailors of the United States are sending a 
message to the people on this side the trenches. It is a 
message that is variously expressed. Sometimes it is to 
be read between the lines of a letter such as this: 

"Camp , 

December lo, 191 7 
"To the American Red Cross: 

"I wish to extend my sincere thanks to you for going 
to aid my wife and child whom I asked you to help last 
week. My wife wrote me that you came to see her. I 
highly appreciate this. / can soldier better now. 

"Yours sincerely, 



Sometimes a sentence or two may carry it. Thus 
another man in the service writes : 

"I have heard how wonderfully the Red Cross has 
taken care of my family. That alone is enough to spur 
one on to use the best that's in him." 

Again this message from the men in the army and 
navy is told without words. What letter could convey 
it more clearly than the act of the sailor who gave to the 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

Red Cross a medal struck off by the Germans in antici- 
pation of their triumphal entry into Paris? He had pro- 
cured it upon one of his voyages and presented it as the 
best means of showing how much the friendship and help 
supplied by the Red Cross to his family had meant to 
him. 

Most vivid of all was the way one of the United States 
engineers, who subsequently was captured by the Ger- 
mans in the battle of Cambrai, expressed it: 

"Be sure to buy a Red Cross badge for me, yourself, 
and one for each of the children," he WTOte to his wife. 
"Wear them all the time." The Red Cross had helped 
his family through legal and financial difficulties and 
had made it possible for his oldest daughter to extend 
her education. 

Surely this message from the soldiers and sailors of 
the United States to the people on this side the trenches 
must be plain to everybody. Certainly he who has 
followed the history of the great world struggle need 
not be told it. 

This message is that, despite the huge quantities of 
machinery and munitions, despite the billions of dol- 
lars, despite the millions of tons of ships that are 
being poured into this terrible venture, the real 
factor in deciding the war will be something that cannot 
be manufactured, something that cannot be measured, 
something that cannot even be seen. More vital than 
aeroplanes, more important than machine guns, tanks, 
submarine chasers, or high explosives is the quality of 
the spirit of the men in the trenches and on the ocean. 
When the French and British were retreating to the 
Marne in the first weeks of the war, when the French 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

were deluged with the terrific rain of steel that accom- 
panied the German drive toward Verdun, when the 
British and the Canadians underwent the tortures of 
the first gas attacks at Ypres, the issue was not how 
many miles of territory would be yielded or held, but 
whether the courage and confidence of the troops would 
endure. The real defeat of the Germans lay in their 
inability to break the spirit of the defenders of France 
and Belgium. 

Military men call this spirit morale. It has been de- 
fined as "the moral pulse of armies," and it Is said that 
since before the days of Julius Caesar the skill of every 
great commander has depended chiefly upon his ability 
to feel and appreciate this Intangible thing. It is 
morale that enables men to endure hardships, hunger, 
and pain, to face death again and again, and yet to keep 
on fighting. It springs from the spirit of the individual 
soldier and sailor. As long as he continues to be cheerful 
and to feel confident of himself and his officers, so long 
does the morale of the army and the navy continue to 
be strong. Let but one man become discouraged, let 
but one man worry and he will become a drain upon the 
vitality of all those who are fighting near him. That is 
why the soldier with a buoyancy of spirit is more valu- 
able to a regiment than a squad of sharpshooters. That, 
moreover, Is why the Red Cross Is one of the most im- 
portant factors in the winning of the war, for it is the 
knowledge that all Is well this side the trenches, in the 
United States, that will encourage a man to fight with 
the best that is In him. Failing that knowledge he will 
know only anxiety, and will lose the spirit of victory. 
The most vulnerable part of the army or the navy, 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

therefore, Is thousands of miles from the submarine 
zone or the trenches. It is in the homes of our soldiers 
and sailors. 

Only if all Is well with the mother, the wife, the chil- 
dren, the sisters, and brothers, can the man in the 
service go forward with the fullest assurance. "I can 
soldier better now," said the recruit whose letter is 
quoted at the beginning of this chapter. With his 
family under the care of the Red Cross he could devote 
undivided energy to the task before him. 

This also, was the thought of the man who while on 
his way to camp stopped at the office of the Red Cross 
in an eastern city. "I want to tell you," he said, "what 
it means to me to know that If my mother should be 
lonely, or sick, or If anything should happen to her you 
will be there to stand by her and set things right." 
Again, it was the desire to have this same assurance that 
caused a soldier whose wife was to be operated upon the 
day after he left for the front to ask the Red Cross to 
visit her In the hospital and to do for her the many 
things that he would have liked to do himself. 

Relief from anxiety was what was wanted by the 
private on whose behalf an officer In charge of a camp 
In the southwest sent a message not long ago to a town 
In Pennsylvania. The officer asked the Red Cross to 
reassure the man who, the telegram said, was "worried 
about the folks at home." 

What's happening to the folks at home Is indeed the 
most Important thing in the world to the member of the 
family who is in the army or navy. And things do 
happen to the folks at home. Things happen to every- 
body. It is one of the ways by which life is measured — 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

for the families of soldiers and sailors as well as for the 
family of anybody else. 

Here, for example, are some of the things which have 
happened to these families during the absence of their 
men at the front, in camp, or on the ocean. A few weeks 
after a certain soldier enlisted, a moving van drew up 
before the door of his home in order to take from it the 
furniture he had been buying upon the installment plan. 
The mother of a man in the ambulance corps found after 
he had gone to the front that what she had thought to 
be indigestion was cancer. The sister of another de- 
veloped tuberculosis. The national guardsman who had 
expected to be with his wife when their first baby was 
born was in camp hundreds of miles away at the time 
that the new mother needed him most. A widow, who 
had said good-bye to her son apparently cheerfully 
enough, worried so much about him that her health was 
endangered. The wife of a sailor who before the days of 
his enlistment had been chiefly responsible for the 
family discipline found it so difficult to manage her 
three young sons that in despair she considered sending 
them to an institution. One of two young men who 
had been managing the farm of their aged parents was 
drafted; two weeks after his departure the remaining 
son died, just at harvest time. The relatives in whose 
charge a soldier had left his wife proved to be unscrupu- 
lous; they made her a household drudge and forced her 
to give them all the money her husband sent her. 

Things do indeed happen to the folks at home. The 

soldier or the sailor recognizes that this is inevitable. 

His real anxiety is not so much that things may happen 

as that when they do happen he cannot be there to help 

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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

and advise. It is the thought of how his absence in 
these emergencies handicaps his family that undermines 
his morale. 

This, moreover, is something that affects the whole 
army and navy for there is scarcely a recruit or a 
veteran in either branch of the service who is without 
'folks'. "There is no man who does not have de- 
pendents," said an army officer. "It is only a question of 
how many dependents he has and how dependent they 
are." Few are the persons we know who are not vitally 
interested in the welfare and happiness of at least one 
other individual. 

The morale of the forces of the United States will, 
therefore, be determined largely by the manner in 
which the folks at home are fortified against the things 
which may happen to them. If the soldier or the sailor 
is to do his best he must have the assurance that, come 
what may, his family will have the counsel and the help 
that, were he at home, he himself would try to provide. 
And this assurance the men of the army and navy have. 
It is an assurance that is the more effective because it is 
given by the same agency which comes to them with 
relief and healing when they are sick and wounded, the 
same agency whose emblem they see at the dressing 
stations on the battlefield, on the ambulances, and at 
the base hospitals. It is the assurance that is offered to 
them by the American Red Cross. 

The Red Cross has found a way of doing, for the 
families of soldiers and sailors when trouble or misfor- 
tune comes to them, what the men themselves would 
like to do were they at home instead of at the front or 
on the sea. 

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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

This activity of the Red Cross is called Home Service. 
Because of it, thousands of men are able to 'soldier 
better now'. It has been, and is, one of the great fac- 
tors in maintaining the morale of the army and navy. 
No more important piece of war work is to be found this 
side the trenches. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER I 

1. Define morale. 

2. Why is it an important factor in deciding the war? 

3. Upon what does the morale of the army and navy 

depend? 

4. What is usually the chief concern of the soldier and 

the sailor? 

5. Give an illustration showing how much assurance of 

the welfare of the folks at home helps the man at the 
front or on shipboard to do his duty. 

6. What are some of the things which may happen at 

home to the families of the men in the service? 

7. Is there anyone of your own acquaintance who has not 

at least one other individual in whose welfare he is 
interested? 

8. What does the soldier or the sailor need if he is to do 

his best? 

9. Why is assurance of personal help particularly effective 

when given by the Red Cross to the men in the army 
or the navy? 
10. What activity of the Red Cross reaches the families 
of the men in the service? 



[9] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter II 
Home Service 

Every soldier and sailor would like to leave four 
things with his family when he enters the service of the 
country. 

The first of these four things is morale, the very same 
grit and cheerfulness which the man himself needs when 
he is at the front or on shipboard, the pluck, the cour- 
age, the ability to do for oneself, the initiative, the self- 
reliance that people have in mind when they say that 
this or that person, this or that family, is made of the 
right stuff. 

Morale is a spiritual quality. It is not a thing to be 
given in a moment and at will to the folks at home, 
either by the man himself or by anybody else. It comes 
down through the generations, is born with the souls of 
those who have it, and is then nourished and strength- 
ened by a wholesome family life. It exists in nearly 
everybody, in some in such small degree as scarcely to 
be recognizable; in others in such abundance that no 
crisis seems to be great enough to daunt them. 

The morale of an individual or a household can be 
strengthened and protected just as the morale of the 
army and navy is safeguarded by the Home Service of 
the Red Cross. Whatever association the Red Cross 
has with families is influenced by the desire to foster 
this spirit in them. 

[lo] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

The three other things which the soldier or the sailor 
would like to leave with his family — and which many 
men are able to leave — are friends, credit, and money. 
Friends in such number and variety that no matter 
in what perplexity the family may find itself there will 
be someone who can supply just the right sort of ad- 
vice, friends in every profession and business, friends 
with every kind of ability and skill, friends with un- 
limited resources. Credit not merely at the grocery 
store cr with the coal dealer, but credit as it has been 
defined by a great financier, the credit of character, of a 
good name, of standing in the neighborhood and in the 
town. Money enough to meet emergencies and to as- 
sure the household that It will lack none of the neces- 
sities of life. The man, who, confident of the morale of 
those at home, can also leave with them such friends, 
such credit, and money, can indeed go to camp with the 
assurance that his family is prepared to meet whatever 
fortune may bring. It is such friends, such credit, and 
money that the Home Service of the Red Cross aims to 
provide. 

Friends were what the woman about to become a 
mother wanted (See Chapter I), what the lonely widow 
wanted, what the wife who was mistreated by her rela- 
tives wanted. The aged parents whose remaining son 
died just at harvest time needed both credit and friends. 
It is difficult enough for a wealthy and able-bodied 
farmer to arrange for the harvesting of his crops with- 
out both; how much more so for an aged man and 
woman. The Red Cross supplied these as it supplied 
the friends which the mother, the widow, and the wife 
required. It supplied also a friend who could advise and 
[II] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

help the wife of the sailor who in his absence was 
finding difficult the management of three unruly boys. 

The woman who after her son's departure learned 
that she had cancer (See Chapter I), was too far ad- 
vanced both in years and in her disease to hope for a 
cure. Her need was for that kind of care which during 
her remaining days would spare her as much pain and 
inconvenience as possible. The young woman with 
tuberculosis might expect to recover if she could go 
away to a sanatorium. But what sanatorium, and how 
could she get there, and how should she prepare herself 
to go, and what about the household arrangements 
while she was gone? Surely these two women needed 
friends not only with medical training, but also with 
ability to suggest ways of adjusting things at home. 
These friends the Home Service of the Red Cross pro- 
vided. 

Money or credit was the immediate need of the 
household before whose door the moving van arrived to 
claim the furniture upon which several installments 
were overdue. The Red Cross supplied both. It also 
gave friendly advice which helped the family so to 
arrange its affairs that it could meet future demands for 
payment. 

The chief financial responsibility for the families of 
the men in the service rests upon the government. It 
pays monthly allowances to them, insures the soldiers 
and sailors against death, and compensates them on 
their return to civil life if they are disabled by sickness, 
wounds, or other injury incurred in the service. In 
doing this, however, the government is necessarily 
guided by certain definite rules and regulations. It 

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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

cannot meet sudden emergencies. It cannot distinguish 
between the needs of famiHes except in an arbitrary 
way, as, for example, according to the number of chil- 
dren. Yet we know that sickness, habits of life, place 
of residence, and a great variety of other things cause 
families to differ from each other in their financial 
needs. 

Here, then, is where the financial phase of Home 
Service begins. When the unforeseen happens, when 
there is delay in the payment of the m.onthly allow- 
ance, or when the allowance needs to be supplemented, 
the Red Cross is ready to help. 

Credit, the credit that goes with a good name and the 
confidence of the public, this also the Red Cross has 
without limit. Shortly after the declaration of war 
with Germany, President Wilson in an official proclama- 
tion designated the Red Cross as the one agency with 
which the government would cooperate in helping the 
families of soldiers and sailors. It has also the credit 
that comes from a membership of more than twenty 
million persons. There is no hamlet so small or so re- 
mote that the Red Cross pin is not to be seen there. 
Nearly every county in every state in the Union has its 
Red Cross Chapter. Excepting perhaps the postal 
service, there is no agency in the United States that is 
so widely organized. The credit of the Red Cross is 
second only to the credit of the government. 

The Red Cross offers the families of men in the 
service the assurance of friends. Wherever households 
are found to be in need of help, whether in city, town, or 
country, there a Home Service Section has been formed 
as part of the local Red Cross Chapter. The Home 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

Service Section is a committee of men and women 
representing, when fully organized, every profession, 
interest, and calling in the county or town which it 
serves. The lawyer, the doctor, the nurse, the social 
worker, the teacher, the clergyman, the business man, 
the business woman, the housekeeper, the woman with 
an interest in civic affairs, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, 
rich, and poor, are welcomed to membership. It is 
made up, especially in the larger towns, of such a 
variety of people that no matter what happens to a 
family, no matter what the nature of the difficulty which 
confronts it, some member of the committee will have 
the knowledge, the experience, and the acquaintance- 
ship needed for the solution of the problem. 

The Red Cross offers to one or more women in each 
Home Service Section special training for the work of 
helping the families of soldiers and sailors out of the 
troubles that may perplex them. This instruction is 
provided through Home Service Institutes which the 
Red Cross has established in connection with univer- 
sities and schools for social work in twenty-five differ- 
ent cities of the United States and through courses in 
Home Service conducted by many of the Red Cross 
Chapters. These Institutes and Chapter Courses are 
under the direction of experienced persons. Those who 
take this training becom.e the Home Service workers 
who make available to the families of soldiers and sailors 
the money, credit, and friends of the Red Cross. 

Friends, credit, and money might be called the tools 

of Home Service. The art of using these tools so as to 

help families out of trouble, giving them opportunity for 

self-improvement, and enabling them to advance their 

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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

ideals and their moral and physical welfare, is the es- 
sence of Home Service. Home Service applies to the 
families of men in all branches of the service, the regular 
army as well as the national guard and the national 
army, sailors, marines, men of the aviation corps, en- 
gineers, and the families of men and women attached to 
hospital units as nurses, doctors, orderlies, ambulance 
drivers. It has to do also with the families of soldiers of 
any of the allied forces living in this country, and with 
the families of civilians who have been wounded or 
killed as the direct result of war activities as, for exam- 
ple, through the torpedoing of a merchant vessel by a 
submarine. 

A majority of these families will be able to live 
through the anxiety and stress of war times without the 
assistance of the Home Service of the Red Cross. But, 
on the other hand, the power of self-helpfulness of a 
large minority will be strained to the breaking point be- 
cause of lack of opportunity, ill-health, misfortune, or 
sudden changes in living conditions brought about by 
the war. 

Home Service is constructive. Its assurance to the 
men at the front or on the high seas is the greater be- 
cause its purpose is to enable their families to better 
themselves. While all the v/orld is turning its energy 
to the work of destruction or to repairing wounds that 
more destruction may be accomplished, the Red Cross 
through its Home Service is trying to build better homes 
and better people. 

This work, moreover, differs from all the other ac- 
tivities of the Red Cross in one respect. Thus, the great 
enterprise of the Red Cross in restoring the homes which 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

have been devastated by the actual passage of war is 
necessarily conducted across the ocean in Belgium, Serbia, 
and France. Again, the making of sweaters and wearing 
apparel for the soldiers and sailors, the rolling of ban- 
dages, the manufacture of hospital material, the mobiliz- 
ing of doctors, nurses, and supplies, is all intended for, 
and directed to, the actual battlefront. Home Service, 
however, whose intimate effect upon the result of the 
war is shown by its influence upon the morale of the 
troops, is the one activity of the Red Cross that is 
concentrated in the United States and that works 
primarily for the people on this side the trenches. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER II 

1. What are the four things which every soldier and sailor 

would like to leave with his family? 

2. Which is the first and most important of these? Which 

three does Home Service provide? 

3. (a) In what sense is 'friends' here used? (&) In what 
sense is 'credit' used? 

4. What is the basis of the credit of the Red Cross? 

5. How does the Red Cross provide friends for the families 

of soldiers and sailors? 

6. Whose is the chief financial responsibility, after that 

of the men in the service themselves, for the families 
of soldiers and sailors? 

7. Where does the financial phase of Home Service begin? 

8. (a) Define Home Service. (&) Describe the member- 

ship of a Home Service Section, (c) Is there a 
Home Service Section in your town? Where is its 
headquarters? 

9. To what families does Home Service apply? 

10. How does Home Service differ from the other activities 
of the Red Cross? 

[16] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter III 
Mothers and Wives 

The very first thing that happens to the folks at home 
is the going of the man to war. The fact that he is no 
longer with them is, perhaps, the hardest thing they 
have to bear. 

The members of most families, living together so long 
and so intimately, having the same blood and the same 
household traditions, become as much a part of one 
another as do the various members of the human body. 
Each one means something to the rest. Thus, the 
man in the service may have been the business 
manager and the financier of the home. He may have 
been the family musician or the artistic member of 
the household. To him the rest may have looked for 
the organization of their picnics, parties, and other 
good times, or he may have been the one who saw the 
funny side of things and who could be depended upon 
to bring home the latest jokes or the tales of those 
amusing adventures that seemingly happen often to 
some people and seldom or not at all to others. 

It is this relationship existing between person and 
person, between friend and friend, that people have 
in mind when they say of somebody, " I feel quite lost 
without him." Would it indeed not be surprising if, 
on the other hand, the soldier or the sailor did not 
often wonder,"how are they getting along without me?" 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

When a man becomes blind his sense of touch and his 
sense of hearing are said to develop abnormally as if 
to compensate for his lost sight. The cripple usually 
is exceptionally dexterous in the use of his other limbs. 
Precisely this sort of adaptation must take place in the 
family of the man who has gone to war. Each member 
must do his or her best to make up to the others the 
loss that they have all sustained. 

Each member by reason of the absence of the man 
has, therefore, a more difficult role to play. It is the 
work of the Red Cross through its Home Service to try 
to understand the peculiar difficulties which this in- 
volves for each person in the household, and to help that 
person to meet them. 

The heaviest burdens fall almost invariably upon the 
mother or the wife. 

"It is not merely the work that I have to do, it is not 
merely that I have to be alone responsible for the care 
of the children, but there is no one who comes home 
at night." A woman whose husband had recently died 
thus expressed what perhaps is the hardest of all that 
the wives and mothers of the men in the service must 
undergo. Again and again the Home Service worker 
is called upon to help some lonely woman struggle 
against her home-sickness for the absent man. 

The only son of a widow was drafted. Until then 
every act of the mother's life had centered about the 
boy. His health and well-being had been her one con- 
cern, while he, giving up all recreation outside the 
home, had devoted himself to her. His absence 
seemed to take all purpose from the mother and leave 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

only anxiety. She began to lose her health. She was 
distraught with worry. 

The Home Service worker discovered that the widow 
did not know how to knit; so she taught her how to 
make socks, sweaters, and other articles for her son, 
then to make things for boys who had no mothers 
to do this for them. At the same time the woman 
was helped to see how important encouraging letters 
were in stimulating her son to be successful as a soldier. 
With this as a beginning, the Home Service worker 
gradually gave her new opportunities for service and 
new interests. It became possible for the widow to 
meet her anxieties with cheerfulness, and ultimately she 
regained her health. 

This same trouble of loneliness brought a young 
woman to the ofhce of the Red Cross in a certain city. 
She and her husband had been married only a few 
months when he enlisted, and she had been unable to 
endure the empty, friendless hours in the little flat 
which they had rented. 

The Home Service worker introduced her to a 
pleasant, motherly woman who, she happened to know, 
wanted a boarder. Home Service involves being ac- 
quainted with the right opportunity at the right time! 
This woman, having been told about the loneliness of 
the soldier's wife, took her to church with her. A class 
of girls in the Sunday school was without a teacher, 
and the young woman was asked if she would fill the 
vacancy. It was just what she needed. She accepted 
the responsibility and with a friend at home and work 
which she enjoys she has begun to feel that she belongs 
somewhere and to somebody. While the war lasts it 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

cannot be hoped that she will cease to worry, but be- 
cause of Home Service she has become better able to 
bear the absence of her husband. 

Many of the women who seek through the Red Cross 
an escape from loneliness have never lived long enough 
in any one neighborhood to make friends. They have 
no one whom they have known for years and to whom 
they can turn for comfort. This is true largely because 
people in the United States are constantly moving 
about from place to place. In many parts of the country 
it is unusual to find a family which has lived in the same 
locality for a generation. In a study of thirteen-year- 
old boys in the city schools of seventy-eight American 
cities of between 25,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, it was 
found that only one in six of the fathers of these boys 
was living in the city of his birth, and that among the 
boys themselves only a few more than half were living 
where they were born.i 

The feeling of loneliness and helplessness which 
comes to many women after the departure of the man 
is increased by the very complexity and vastness of the 
war and the many different departments and branches 
of the service. The mother knows that her son has 
become part of the army or the navy; she believes that 
he is in camp, or somewhere in France, or somewhere 
on the Atlantic. But it is all vague. She does not 
understand how to obtain word about him when, per- 
haps, no letter has come to her for several months. 
It is through the Home Service Section of the Red Cross 
that she learns how she can communicate with her son, 

1 Some Conditions Affecting Problems of Industrial Education in 
Seventy-eight American School Systems, by Leonard P. Ayres. 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

and how, If he is reported sick or wounded, she can 
obtain particulars about his condition. 

Here also she learns about the government allowance 
to which she may be entitled. She is advised to write 
to her son and to urge him to insure himself with the 
government and she is informed about the compensa- 
tion to which her boy is entitled in case of wounds, 
sickness, or injury. When there is delay in the pay- 
ment of the allowance or any other difficulty of this 
kind, the Red Cross acts as her agent and makes the 
necessary adjustments. 

This and other matters of business furnish some of 
the most perplexing problems which the mother or the 
wife has to solve. Hitherto the overhead expenditures 
of the household — the payment of rent and insurance, 
the purchase of furniture, and so forth — have been 
attended to by the husband or, perhaps, by the oldest 
son. Now when the mortgage falls due — and this has 
happened frequently — the woman turns to the Red 
Cross for advice. Shall she renew the mortgage? Is 
the property worth holding? Can she meet future in- 
terest charges? To such questions the Home Service 
worker must help her to find the answer. 

One woman sought the assistance of the Red Cross 
because her husband, before going to the front, had 
borrowed $ioo from a loan shark giving as security 
the furniture which was worth many times this amount. 
The loan shark demanded interest at thirty-six per 
cent. With the assistance of the Red Cross the woman 
was able to secure release from this extortioner, to re- 
turn the principal to him immediately, and to obtain 
the money her needs demanded. 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

When the going of the man to war has meant a smaller 
income for the family, the Red Cross has frequently 
helped the woman to plan her economies so as not to 
deprive the home of things essential to its well-being. ~ 

Shortly before enlisting, a man had undertaken to 
purchase by installments a victrola costing $150. Thirty 
dollars had been invested in this way when he entered 
the army. His wife had not enough money to support 
herself and continue the payments. Yet to have given 
up the victrola would have meant a great loss to her. 
She needed the music. For her it was a refuge from 
worry. It cheered her when she was depressed. 

The Home Service worker solved the difficulty by 
persuading the dealer to exchange the machine for 
one costing $50, and to consider the $30 which had 
been paid toward the purchase of the victrola as part 
of the price of the smaller phonograph. 

On the other hand, there are women who now have 
larger incomes than they had before their men enlisted. 
Often they need the help of the Red Cross even more 
than those whose incomes have been reduced. 

There was one woman who in the words of a Home 
Service worker "went all to pieces when her husband 
went away." He was an officer. The oldest son was 
also in the army leaving the mother with four children, 
two of whom were working and were receiving larger 
wages because of the war. The woman had now what 
to her seemed more money than she could use. She 
began buying all sorts of things upon the installment 
plan, a piano, a sewing machine, a graphophone. Some 
acquaintances whom hitherto she had barely known 
now became close friends. Their good times were not 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

complete without alcohol, and the soldier's wife soon 
learned to drink. Her old friends began to neglect her, 
and her husband, learning of her misconduct, said that 
he wanted never to see her again. 

The Red Cross appealed successfully to the woman's 
love for her husband and her children. She wanted 
to do better and the Home Service worker helped her 
in her resolution. First of all, the family was advised 
to move to a new neighborhood where the mother would 
not be under the influence of her undesirable friends. 
The oldest son was appointed treasurer for the house- 
hold and a Home Service visitor called upon the woman 
almost every day to show her how to manage and to 
strengthen her in her determination to stop drinking. 
When summer came the mother was sent to spend a 
few weeks with friends in a distant town who did not 
know about her trouble. She came back with a still 
firmer hold upon herself, and when, after much per- 
suasion by the Red Cross, the husband returned from 
camp on a furlough and found his home as it had been 
before, he forgave and forgot the weakness which his 
wife had overcome. 

The Home Service of the Red Cross is indeed needed 
in many instances not only to help women manage with 
a reduced income but also to give them guidance and 
counsel when they suddenly find themselves with more 
money than they have ever had before. 

No wife or mother of a soldier or sailor needs to seek 
employment if, in order to take care of the children or 
for other reasons, she should be at home. When, be- 
cause of unusual expenses the government allowance 
and the payments by the man are not enough to sup- 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

port the family, the Red Cross is ready to help. The 
Red Cross beUeves that, particularly in time of war, 
it is important that the mother should stay at home so 
as to have opportunity to devote her full energies to 
the rearing and education of her children. Some women, 
however, are happier when they are employed outside 
of the home. Such women the Home Service worker 
helps to obtain jobs; she tries to see that they are paid 
fair wages and that their work is done in healthful 
surroundings. 

Sometimes a woman is not proficient in the very 
kind of employment in which her skill is usually taken 
for granted. She may not know how to select and pre- 
pare the daily meals. To a Home Service worker the 
parents and four brothers and sisters of a boy who 
enlisted seemed to be in poor health. A doctor whose 
advice she sought said after an examination that the 
whole family was suffering from lack of nourishment. 
The real trouble was discovered to be that the mother 
did not know how to cook or what kind of food to buy. 
As soon as she was taught these first essentials of 
housekeeping the health of the family began to improve. 

Of all the women, however, who need the Home Ser- 
vice of the Red Cross she who is about to become a 
mother needs it most of all. Thus a young wife came 
to the Red Cross office and told the worker there how 
frightened she was at the thought of what she was 
about to experience. 

"If only Jack were here," she sobbed. 

"You must meet Mrs. Smith," suggested the Home 
Service worker. "Her husband and her only boy are 
both in France. I'm sure that if you should like her 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

she'd be glad to come and live with you for a few 
months." 

The young woman and Mrs. Smith became friends 
at once and, as the older woman had been a trained 
nurse, the coming of the baby that has since arrived 
was converted into a source of eagerly anticipated joy. 

At such times and, indeed, whenever there is sick- 
ness, the Home Service worker arranges for the presence 
of a doctor and a nurse, or secures admission to a 
hospital for the woman, if that is desirable. She sees 
also that the young mother becomes acquainted with 
those who can give her instruction about the care of 
the baby and herself. 

No one, of course, can fill the place which the hus- 
band or the son has left — neither the Red Cross nor the 
other members of the family — but Home Service offers 
to women the kind of counsel and advice which their 
men would like to obtain for them, and, by helping 
them out of perplexity, by saving them from loneliness 
and friendlessness, gives to the men in the trenches or 
on shipboard that feeling of security about the folks 
at home which enables them to fight with unimpaired 
morale. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER III 

1. What is the first and hardest thing that the family of 

the man in the service has to bear? 

2. What binds the members of a family together? 

3. What must the family do in order to lessen as much as 

possible the handicap caused by the absence of the 



man 



Give an illustration showing how Home Service helped 
a soldier's mother to overcome her loneliness. 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

5. What evidence can you give to show that many fami- 

lies are likely to be newcomers to the neighborhood 
in which they live? 

6. What kind of information can the families of men in 

the service obtain from the Home Service Sections? 

7. Show by illustration how Home Service has helped 

women in the financial mangement of the home: 

(a) When there has been a decrease in income. 

(b) When there has been an increase in income. 

8. Is it ever desirable for a woman with children to ob- 

tain employment outside of her home? 

9. In what phase of housekeeping does Home Service 

often find that women are unskilled? 
10. How does Home Service help the sick? 



[26 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter IV 
The Children 

This war is being fought for the children of the world. 
The men who are now in the trenches will reap few of 
the benefits that will come from the conclusion of a 
permanent peace. The nations that are losing their 
best manhood, that are spending billions of dollars, that 
are undergoing countless privations will derive little 
immediate material gain from all their sacrifices. Small 
in comparison with the investment will be the present 
profit of the United States at the conclusion of its great 
venture. 

The thought of everybody, from the least important 
soldier or sailor to President Wilson himself, has been 
the generations of the future. It is that the people of 
the United States and of the world of tomorrow may be 
a better people, that the people of the United States 
and of the world of today are at war with autocracy. 

But the people of tomorrow are the children of today. 
They are the boys and girls who were born last year, the 
boys and girls who are in kindergarten now, who are in 
grammar school, in high school, who are working in 
their first jobs. That these children may have greater 
opportunity, the men on the battlefront are risking 
their lives. Is it not important, then, that the boys and 
girls of the United States should be fitted to make the 
most of the opportunities that the world of tomorrow 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

holds for them? And of all children, should not the 
sons and daughters of the soldiers and sailors be given 
the benefit of the best preparation available? 

It is infinitely harder for children to develop properly 
in a time of war than it is in a time of peace. In Great 
Britain, for example, there has been a great increase in 
juvenile delinquency. The number of children arrested 
and brought before the courts for breaking the law is 
larger by forty per cent, than before the war. This is 
partly because of the absence of the fathers from home, 
partly because in the first throes of mobilization many 
of the schools were closed, the buildings being used by 
the military, and partly because boys and girls by the 
thousands went to work in munitions factories and other 
war enterprises at an age when they ought still to have 
been living a sheltered life. 

The lesson which this should teach the people of the 
United States is that children must continue Jn school 
as long as possible. Moreover, according to a study 
made by the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial 
and Technical Education, ninety-eight per cent, of the 
bo3's and girls in that state who go to work between the 
ages of fourteen and fifteen engage in unskilled or low 
grade industries. Thus they have little opportunity for 
training or advancement. This is corroborated by a 
report issued by the United States Bureau of Education 
which shows that a high school graduate earns on the 
average $i,ooo a year as against $500 earned by a poorly 
educated workman. The National Child Labor Com- 
mittee has published statistics indicating that a trained 
worker, eighteen years of age, earns ten dollars a week 
as compared with seven dollars a week received by an 
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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

untrained worker of the same age. At twenty-five years 
the difference is much greater — being thirty-one dollars 
weekly for the trained worker as against fourteen dollars 
for the untrained worker. 

Despite this and similar evidence of how education 
pays, many parents are tempted to allow their children 
to stop school even when the money which might be 
added to the family income in this way is not needed. 
A girl was kept at home to do housework in order that 
her mother, whose husband had gone to war, might add 
to the family income by taking a job. The Home 
Service worker learned that there was an older daughter, 
twenty years old, who, because she had been lazy, had 
been earning only four dollars a week in a factory. 
When, through a talk with the Red Cross worker, the 
young woman realized that her lack of industry had 
caused her mother to take her younger sister from 
school, she became more zealous and is now receiving 
triple her former wage. The little girl is continuing her 
education. 

Sometimes a child wants to stop going to school be- 
cause he has fallen behind in his classes. For the help 
of such children there are attached to many Home 
Service Sections men and women who act as tutors and 
who help these children with their lessons. Often back- 
wardness in studies is caused by ill-health or by some 
physical defect. A Home Service worker noticed a 
strained look upon the face of a boy who had stopped 
going to school because he had been at the foot of his 
class. It occurred to her to ask the mother whether the 
child had ever had measles. When she learned that he 
had had this disease she took him to a doctor and dis- 
[29] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

covered that, as frequently happens after measles, his 
eyes had become so weak that they required glasses. 
Now that the boy is no longer suffering from defective 
vision he is making excellent marks in school. 

Frequently a child does not advance in his studies be- 
cause they do not interest him. The daughter of a 
soldier failed to do well at a trade school where she was 
taking lessons in sewing. The Home Service worker 
found the girl one afternoon leading her brothers and 
sisters in calisthenics. Finding that the child's interests 
were in this direction she persuaded the mother to 
allow her daughter to enter a physical culture school 
where she is now fitting herself to be a gymnasium 
instructor. 

When the time comes for the boy to start work it 
means much to his success in life that he enter an occu- 
pation which offers him a future and one in which he is 
fitted by inclination and ability to engage. In the larger 
cities there are men and women who specialize in giving 
advice to young people about the kind of employment 
they ought to seek. This is called vocational guidance. 
It depends largely upon a knowledge of the ability, 
education, and inclination of the child, and about the 
occupations which are open to him. When specialists 
in vocational guidance are available. Home Service ob- 
tains their help for the boys and girls of soldiers and 
sailors. In towns where they are not to be found, such 
advice is supplied as effectively as possible by the 
Home Service workers themselves. 

Equally important with education is health. The 
Red Cross not only obtains treatment for the families of 
soldiers and sailors when there is sickness, but it also 
[30] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

uses every opportunity to help them to improve their 
physical condition. 

Many people from birth to old age are content with 
being only half well because they have never known any- 
thing better. The eleven-year-old brother of a man in 
the service had walked on crutches all his life until one 
morning in the spring of 19 17 he broke them. The 
family did not have enough money to replace them and 
asked the Red Cross for assistance. The Home Service 
worker took the boy to a physician. The doctor recom- 
mended an operation, which was performed, and now 
the little fellow is able to run about like other children 
and needs no crutches. 

"She plays too hard," the mother of a girl who con- 
stantly complained of tired feet told the Home Service 
worker. The young woman from the Red Cross, how- 
ever, took the child to a specialist in diseases of the 
joints and discovered that a certain kind of shoe would 
correct the trouble. This shoe was obtained and now 
the child plays all day without becoming tired. 

The Home Service worker makes constant use of 
physicians and nurses. When, for example, she thinks 
that any member of a family may have tuberculosis she 
immediately arranges for an examination by a doctor 
or at a tuberculosis dispensary if there is one in town. 
She helps the patient to obtain admission to a sanato- 
rium, or, if that is not possible, she tries to arrange to 
have a nurse visit the home regularly and supervise the 
treatment for this disease — a treatment which, as 
everybody knows, consists of rest, fresh air, good food, 
and, for the protection of others, the careful destruction 
of all discharges from the patient's nose and throat. 
[31I 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

It is through these discharges that the disease is chiefly 
spread. 

The moral welfare of the children is often as much a 
concern of the Red Cross as their physical welfare. 
The wife of a sailor asked a Home Service worker for 
advice about the management of her three sons. They 
were under fifteen years of age, and, in the absence of 
their father, had become most unruly. The Home 
Service worker who was the mother of boys herself 
gave the perplexed woman some practical advice about 
discipline. Then she told the boys that she would have 
to send their mother away for a rest. The thought of 
separation, and the idea that this separation was neces- 
sary largely because of their behavior, had an immedi- 
ate influence upon the children. They promised to be 
more considerate of their mother, and in the end, the 
whole family was sent away for a vacation by the Red 
Cross. When the mother and the boys returned, the 
Home Service worker planned various expeditions and 
excursions which used up some of the children's energy. 
Her advice to the mother has been so helpful that now 
the children have become an aid and a comfort instead 
of a hindrance and a perplexity. 

Recreation is almost as important to children as food. 
It can be made a means of education and a moral safe- 
guard. Yet there are thousands of boys and girls in the 
United States who have never known any other play- 
ground than the street in front of their homes; who have 
never been on picnics; who have never been able to play 
games without interruption by the policeman or passing 
automobiles and wagons. There are families whose 
members have never attended an entertainment or a 
[32] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

concert. The incomes of thousands of households are 
so small that they cannot afford to go to a moving pic- 
ture show. Five cents for the movies means five cents 
less for bread. Many families, indeed, stay away from 
church for the lack of a nickel to put into the collection 
box, or from inability to make a subscription, if they 
were to become members. 

The oldest son of a widow, whose life had been lived 
in just this meagre way, enlisted. The family now was 
obliged to economize still more. There was nothing 
left after the meals and the rent were paid for, and the 
mother became sickly more through weariness of the 
monotony of the struggle to make ends meet, than 
through actual lack of food or clothing. One of the 
first things that the Red Cross did after making the ac- 
quaintance of this woman was to arrange to have the 
oldest of her three children take her to a moving pic- 
ture show and treat her to ice cream afterwards. The 
experience was so unusual that the woman and her son 
talked about it for days. The Red Cross now sees to it 
that this family has some kind of recreation every few 
weeks. There has, as a result, been a remarkable im- 
provement in the health of the household. 

Where do the children play? what friends have they? 
These are questions which the Home Service worker 
frequently asks of the mother. Whenever opportunity 
offers she encourages the children to become Boy Scouts 
or Camp Fire Girls and to join the Junior Red Cross 
and such organizations as the agricultural and home- 
making clubs conducted by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. She interests the older girls in 
entering sewing and reading circles and the boys in 

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THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

becoming members of debating societies and athletic 
clubs. 

Through the church, the Red Cross worker strives to 
enrich the spiritual life of the family. The Home 
Service worker soon, of course, learns to what denomi- 
nation the members of the household belong, and then 
if they have not been active in attendance at services 
she urges them to renew their connections with the 
church; she sees that the children are invited to attend 
the Sunday school, or to join church societies and clubs. 
Here the ideal of the Red Cross is that of a social 
worker now connected with a Home Service Section, 
who wrote to a woman grown careless about attendance 
at church, "v/hatever one's religion is one ought to ob- 
serve it." The woman was a Catholic; the social worker 
was in the service of a non-sectarian organization 
and was herself a Protestant. She recognized, as all 
true Home Service workers do, how important it is 
that no opportunity for the development of spiritual 
life be lost. 

The ideal of Home Service is, therefore, to open to 
families ways of physical, mental, and spiritual devel- 
opment. Its desire for the children of these families is 
that they be enabled to follow the example of a certain 
Boy who lived two thousand years ago and of whom it 
is said that He increased "in wisdom, and in stature, and 
in favor with God and man." 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER IV 

1. Whose will be the greatest benefit from the war? 

2. What evidence can you cite to show that war times 

may bring handicaps to children? 

[34] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

3. What facts indicate that to take children from school 

in order that they may work is poor economy? 

4. Give two reasons why children sometimes want to 

stop school. 

5. Give an illustration showing how Home Service works 

to keep children in school. 

6. Why does the Red Cross seek to improve the physical 

condition of children? 

7. (a) What is the treatment for tuberculosis? (b) How 

is this disease chiefly spread? 

8. (a) Have all children equal opportunity for recreation? 

(b) Do you know of children in your town who have 
no place to play? (c) Why is recreation a necessity? 

9. What kinds of recreation, aside from physical exer- 

cises, help to develop children? 
10. (o) How does Home Service try to advance the spiri- 
tual life of the family? (6) What is its attitude 
toward religious observance? 



[35I 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter V 
The Family 



Service in the American army and navy is for many 
men an educational opportunity. All the ingenuity of 
modern science is focused upon the battlefront. There 
is not a form of technical skill that is not useful there. 
The man in uniform is not merely a soldier or a sailor; 
he may be also an electrician; a telegrapher; a wireless 
operator; an aeronautical expert; a mathematician; 
and so on through all the trades, professions, and busi- 
nesses in the world. 

Men who before the war were unskilled laborers are 
now apprenticed in occupations requiring knowledge 
and experience. They will leave the army and the navy 
as trained artisans. At the great camps where the sol- 
diers are receiving military instruction, and at the naval 
reserve stations, classes are being conducted in every- 
thing from arithmetic to English and French. Enter- 
tainments of various kinds are being held and the men 
are being educated even through their recreation. Then 
there is the trip to Europe and the many things which, 
aside from the life in the trenches, the men are seeing 
and experiencing. Before the war, travel abroad was 
the privilege only of those who were wealthy enough, or 
were willing to make sacrifices enough, to obtain the 
money needed for such a journey. Now this is the op- 
portunity of more than a million American men. Let 
I36] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

no one, however, consider all this as a justification for 
war. Compared with the wreck and havoc that is being 
wrought to character, life, and property, the educational 
advantages of the conflict amount to nothing. Never- 
theless, many of the soldiers and sailors will, indeed, re- 
turn to civil life with a wider experience and a far better 
education than before. Their standards of orderliness 
and of sanitation, as well as of culture and technical 
knowledge, will be greatly advanced. 

But what of the folks at home? Will the families of 
these men have fallen so far behind them as to be un- 
congenial? This question is with the Home Service 
workers whenever they visit the household of an en- 
listed man. 

One Red Cross worker happened to learn that the 
husband of a woman whom she was helping had been 
made a sergeant. The news caused her to realize the 
difference between his opportunities and those of his 
wife. He was learning to lead other men; he was taking 
advantage of the education which the camp was giving 
him. She, on the other hand, could not speak or write 
English; the family lived in an undesirable neighbor- 
hood; the children were allowed to be irregular in their 
school attendance; the housekeeping was poor. If the 
man were to return to such a family he might become 
discouraged and lose all he had gained. His home life 
might be a failure. 

The Red Cross worker helped the family to move to 
another neighborhood; she began teaching the mother 
better standards of housekeeping, and arranged that 
she should receive lessons in the English language; she 
saw to it that the children went to school regularly. If 
[37] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

the family responds to the efforts of the Red Cross the 
sergeant will find a congenial household when he re- 
turns. 

This awakening of the family to wider opportunities 
is especially important in the homes of people who 
have come to America from other countries. These 
newer citizens frequently need to be helped to adapt 
themselves to American ways of living in order that 
they may get the best that the United States has to 
offer, and that the United States may in turn receive 
the best that they have to give. 

In the spring of 19 12 Jacques Armot^ arrived in one 
of the great cities of the United States. He had left 
France with the same hope of improving himself that 
inspired the men who came to America in the days of 
Captain John Smith and the Pilgrim fathers. He soon 
discovered, however, that starting a career was not 
easy in a great metropolis where he had no friends. 
Making a living in America is no longer the simple 
matter it was in the days of the first settlers when any- 
one who could cultivate a plot of ground and handle 
firearms could make a home for himself and his family. 
Armot was obliged to take the first kind of work that 
offered itself — and that was manual labor. 

His wages were so low and the cost of living was so 
high that existence was more difficult for him than it had 
been In France. The neighborhood in which he could 
find a home within his means did not have the sort of 
people who were socially congenial to his wife and to 
him. Consequently, they withdrew within themselves 
and remained apart from the life about them. 

iThe name is, of course, fictitious. 
[38] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

The children, however, went to school. They learned 
the English language and they learned American ways. 
When the two oldest boys reached working age they 
were able by reason of their greater knowledge of things 
American to earn almost as much as their father. More 
and more they saw the difference between the foreign 
atmosphere of their home and the American tone of the 
rest of the city. They began to feel superior to their 
father and mother, and dissatisfied with the family life. 
When the United States entered the war they enlisted, 
partly as a means of escape from their home. 

Without the wages of the boys the family found it 
difficult to live. The man sought the advice of the Red 
Cross. The Home Service worker recognized immedi- 
ately that the trouble lay largely in the failure of the 
parents to adapt themselves to the life about them. 
The man looked very much the foreigner. His hair was 
long, his moustache trailed down over the corners of h is 
mouth — even the color and cut of his clothes stamped 
him as being an outlander. The first Home Service 
remedy was the barber and the clothing store. Then 
there were talks with the man about his ambitions. He 
was made to feel that he had the backing of the Red 
Cross. The Home Service worker learned of a position 
in a bank. Armot was sent to apply for it. W^ith the 
new feeling of confidence which the Red Cross had given 
him, and the consciousness that he was groomed in 
American style, he obtained the job. He has proved 
himself to be a valuable worker and is earning twenty- 
five dollars a week. 

In the meantime, several members of the Home 
Service Section had called to see Mrs. Armot. She 
[39] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

began to feel that at last she had found friends in 
America and when, after a time, one of her visitors sug- 
gested that she study English she readily accepted the 
suggestion. She began, also, to make excursions about 
the city in order that she might select a house in a more 
congenial neighborhood, which her husband's increased 
salary now made possible. Through the Red Cross the 
boys learned about the changes that had taken place at 
home. They began writing to their parents. When 
they return from the war they will find a family ready 
to give them the environment they desire. 

People welcome the opportunities which the Red 
Cross offers them to become acquainted with American 
ways of life. "So many things I want to learn; maybe 
she teach me more than writing," said one woman for 
whom a Home Service worker had obtained an in- 
structor in English. 

Families of soldiers and sailors need the strengthening 
influences of the Red Cross in still other ways, for all 
the men in the service will not have progressed because 
of their war experiences; some households will have 
to prepare against a deterioration in the quality of the 
men who return to them. 

The separation, long in time and in distance which the 
trip to France involves, Is a severe strain upon family 
ties. In the Civil War the soldiers were seldom more 
than a few days' journey from home. They could usu- 
ally visit their families during comparatively brief fur- 
loughs. This, also, is true of the French and the English 
soldiers. The Americans, however, will probably be 
abroad for the duration of the war. Unless the bonds 
I40] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

of the home are kept strong, many a soldier and sailor 
will be likely to drift away from his family. 

When, therefore, there is any danger of a household 
breaking up and its members separating, the Red Cross 
does its best to hold the family together, for nothing 
could be more demoralizing to a soldier or a sailor than • 
to return from the front and find no place to call his own. 

The home of a certain soldier had almost ceased to 
exist because of this separation of the members of the 
family. One of his brothers and one of his sisters were 
living in one part of town, another brother was living 
with an aunt, and a sister was staying in still another 
section of the city. 

The Home Service worker helped the oldest daughter 
to find a flat where the children could live together. 
There, under the leadership of their sister, they are 
making a home for themselves and for their brother 
when he returns. This family will be stronger after the 
war, because it has been reunited. 

The life in the trenches, with all its stretches of mo- 
notony, is so different from the routine of business; it is 
so much more exciting; it relieves a man so completely 
of the necessity of supporting himself and his family, 
that when the soldier returns to civil life he is tempted, 
as the experience of our Allies has shown, not to engage 
in any form of steady employment. The weak man is 
likely to yield to this temptation unless he finds at 
home a bracing atmosphere of industry and ambition. 

The Red Cross cannot, of course, make a family in- 
dustrious and ambitious. All the Home Service worker 
can hope to do is to give the family opportunities to 
improve itself and to encourage it to take advantage of 
[41] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

these opportunities. Everything depends ultimately 
upon what, at the beginning of Chapter II, was called 
the morale of the family. Only If the family Is made of 
the right stuff, only if it has the spirit of self-reliance and 
self-help, can It hope to succeed. 

There is no royal road to success any more than there 
is a royal road to learning. One cannot give a household 
a sound, stimulating family life any more than one can 
give a man an education. One can only confirm a 
family in its ideals or show it new ones; one can 
only see that its desire to do things for itself, the desire 
of its members to do things for each other, is not weak- 
ened by an invitation to depend upon outsiders instead 
of upon itself. One can only give encouragement In 
discouragement, opportunity where there is no oppor- 
tunity, hope where otherwise there might be despair. 

This is what the Home Service of the Red Cross tries 
to do for the families of soldiers and sailors. But after 
all, could there be found anywhere a more helpful or a 
more difficult work? 



REVIEW OF CHAPTER V 

1. What unusual educational opportunities have Ameri- 

can soldiers and sailors? 

2. How did Home Service help one family to prepare it- 

self for the return of the man? 

3. What should be our purpose in helping the new citi- 

zens of America, i, e., immigrants, to adapt them- 
selves to American ways of living? 

4. What is the lesson of the story of Jacques Armot? 

5. Why is it that there is danger of lack of sympathy 

between immigrant parents and their children? 

[42] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

6. What is there in the conditions under which the present 
war is fought that tends to be a strain upon family- 
ties? 
(^7. Why did the Red Cross unite a soldier's family which 
had become separated? 

8. Does the maintenance of family life seem to you to be 

important? Why? 

9. What is there in the life of' the soldier or the sailor 

which makes it hard for him to return to everyday 
life and work? 
10. What is the only way in which people are really 
helped? 



[43! 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter VI 
The House 

What clothes are to the body, that the house is to 
the family. Just as clothes show the taste of their 
wearer, so the house expresses the character of those 
who live within it. 

Is the family hospitable, or are there never guests 
at the table or for the night? Has the family an 
appreciation of things that are beautiful? Is it orderly? 
Are any of its members fond of reading? Is it a family 
that knows how to enjoy itself at home or is it one which 
is dependent upon others for recreation and relaxation? 
Do its members have a good time being together or are 
they usually to be found away from home, each busy 
about his own interests? 

These and many other questions are answered by the 
house. The house is indeed far more than a shelter in 
which to sleep and dress and eat. It is a place where 
character is formed. Therefore its physical condition 
is of great importance to the welfare of the enlisted 
man's family. 

The army and navy have been recruited from every 
rank in society, from rich and poor alike. While some 
have left luxurious homes to enter the service, others 
have enlisted from houses miserable in surroundings 
and construction. Thus, indeed. Home Service work- 
ers, in the course of their visits to families of soldiers 
[44] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

and sailors, have discovered one or more of the four 
principal housing evils that are to be found in cities 
and villages throughout the country: 

A. Lack of suitable water supply — failure to have 
running water in the house where this is possible. 

B. Lack of proper sanitation, lack of proper ventilation 
and of sanitary toilets. 

C. Lack of privacy because of not enough rooms. 

D. Structural defects, i. e., leaky roofs, damp walls, 
cellars flooded with water, thin board walls that do not 
keep out the cold. 

In larger cities there is, in addition, the lack of space 
about the houses, no yards, and buildings erected so 
close to one another that the dwellings have not enough 
light and air. Moreover, despite all the improvements 
that have been made in city housing, there are still to 
be found thousands of rooms which have no outside 
windows and which obtain their light and air either 
through a door or a window cut into another room. 

When a Home Service worker finds a family living 
under any of the conditions that have just been de- 
scribed, she immediately urges them to move into 
better surroundings. She tells the members of the 
family to require three things of the house in which they 
desire to make their home — cheerfulness, sanitation, 
privacy. 

This means that every house should have fresh air 
and sunlight, that it should be in good repair, that the 
plumbing should be of such kind and in such condition 
that waste matter moves quickly into sewers. It means 
that there should, of course, be running water in the 
dwelling. When scrubbing the floor or taking a bath 

[45] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

involves carrying a bucket from a hydrant in the yard 
or from a faucet in the basement or in the hall of a 
tenement, cleanliness becomes so difficult as frequently 
to be neglected. 

Particularly important to the moral welfare of the 
family is privacy. What sort of home life is possible 
when parents and children can never be alone together? 
What sort of morals is it possible to maintain when, as 
frequently happens, four or five, sometimes as many as 
eight or nine, people sleep in the same room? 

To be sure, it is not often that the families of soldiers 
and sailors are to be found living under such conditions, 
but these things exist; and the Home Service worker 
who desires to protect the children of the men in the 
army and navy must have a knowledge of what she 
may meet in the course of her work. 

The lodger comes as an additional problem to many 
families. In a desire to add to the income which is 
received from the government allowance, the mother 
or the wife is often tempted to rent one of her rooms. 
The inducement to do this is especially strong in towns 
where unusually large numbers of men are engaged in 
the manufacture of munitions or in shipbuilding or in 
the production of other war materials. For some 
women the taking of lodgers may be a desirable thing. 
None the less, there are dangers involved. Keeping a 
lodger may mean overwork for a woman who is already 
as busy as she ought to be. It may mean overcrowding 
a home that already has as many occupants as it 
ought to have. Usually the lodger arrives from the 
family knows not where. He becomes an intimate 
acquaintance of the household when perhaps if his 
[46] 



THIS SIDE THE TRE^NCHES 

character were known he would not be permitted to 
pass the door. The Home Service worker having par- 
ticularly in mind the welfare of the daughters of the 
family, encourages the mother to talk about her plans 
before she decides to take a lodger. In this way much 
harm has been avoided. 

Sanitation and cheerfulness cannot be secured simply 
bv selecting the proper kind of house. These things 
depend also upon the way in which the house is kept. 
Where there is a yard it should be cleared of litter. The 
garbage cans should be covered, refuse should not be 
allowed to collect in the cellar, and the rooms and halls 
should be clean and orderly. 

All this may seem to be simple and something to be 
taken for granted, yet there are families where the 
home life is unsuccessful because of lack of proper 
housekeeping. From the clutter of unwashed dishes 
on the kitchen table to the unmade beds, everythmg 
in the house makes a disagreeable impression. 

This failure of the housekeeper is particularly notice- 
able in many of the larger cities of the country. Al- 
though people living in the crowded streets know their 
neighbors better than is generally supposed, they do not 
exchange visits with so great a variety of people as 
does the person living in a small town. Here the 
woman, inexperienced in housekeeping, sees frequently 
the homes of women of greater experience and better 
taste. In the city the housekeeping methods of a 
whole neighborhood may be so similar that a woman 
has little incentive to improve her work. 
, This is also true of families living in the colonies 
which immigrants form in towns and villages in every 
[47] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

part of the United States. When these people have 
poorly kept homes it is only because they do not know 
any better. They have never been taught the art of 
housekeeping. They do not know that it is an art. 
They do not know that there is any better way of living 
than the way to which they have been accustomed. 
Their only hope of advancement lies in having someone 
show them what the care of the house means, and what 
pleasure and comfort, what a wholesome family life 
can be had from a home in which the art of housekeep- 
ing has been practised. 

The Home Service workers have a great opportunity 
to raise the ideals of many women about the care of 
their homes. Whenever the family of a soldier or a 
sailor is suffering for lack of a knowledge of house- 
keeping, the Red Cross tries to introduce to it someone 
who can show the mother, the wife, or the daughter 
how to do her work better, not only the housework but 
also the cooking and the buying of food and clothes. 
Whenever possible, this person is a domestic science 
teacher in the public schools or one of the home demon- 
stration agents who are at work in the counties of many 
states. Home Service Sections which have not been 
able to obtain the services of these specialists have 
depended upon housekeepers of experience who have 
been willing to volunteer their time for this work. 
Through these women the Red Cross has been able to 
help spread the rules, instructions, and requests of the 
Food Administration. Families have been reminded 
of the wheatless and meatless days and about conserv- 
ing sugar and fats. They have also been encouraged 
[48] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

to start war gardens when there has been space for 
them to do this. 

FamiHes which have been reached with this form of 
Home Service have learned to take a pride in the ap- 
pearance of their houses and yards. They have culti- 
vated the art of home-making with greater interest and 
in so doing have strengthened their whole family life, 
for, as indicated at the beginning of the chapter, the 
house is primarily to be regarded as a place where 
character is formed. The house which is selected and 
maintained from this point of view can, indeed, become 
a fortress because of which the man in the trenches or 
on the high seas may feel certain that his family is 
secure. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER VI 

1. How do dwellings show the characteristics of those 

who live within them? 

2. Why is the house an important place? 

3. Mention four of the prevalent evils of housing to be 

found throughout the country. 

4. What are some other housing evils found, especially 

in cities? 

5. What are the three things which the Home Service 

worker desires the members of the family to require 
of the house in which they live? 

6. What does each of these three things involve? 

7. Why is the taking of a lodger into the family a matter 

for serious consideration? 

8. Why are many of the homes in large cities, or in colo- 

nies formed by immigrants, poorly kept? 

9. How do the Home Service workers try to improve 

these homes? 
10. How is Home Service helping the Food Administra- 
tion? 

[49] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 



Chapter VII 
The Towni 

The house was a ramshackle, rickety affair. The 
steps wobbled so dangerously as the Home Service 
worker climbed them that she feared that they would 
break under her. Certainly it was not the sort of 
place in which the family of a man in the service of his 
country ought to be obliged to stay. The Home Ser- 
vice worker immediately arranged to move the family 
to other and more cheerful quarters. 

But what about the next family that might move into 
the house? There ought to be no next family or at 
least not until the building could be repaired. The 
Home Service worker knew the law regulating the con- 
dition of houses. She was, therefore, able to make a 
beginning of remedying the trouble by reporting what 
she had seen to a city official whose business it was to 
act upon such complaints. 

In another town the family of a sailor had been buy- 
ing a house upon a partial payment plan. The dwelling 
was not connected with the city sewer. The Home Ser- 
vice workers learned that the municipality was com- 
pelled by law to make such connections allowing the 
householder to reimburse it by installments for the 

^The problems described in this chapter, while of interest to all 
who are concerned with the welfare of their fellows, are presented 
chiefly from the point of view of the larger towns and cities. 

[50] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

expenditure. Accordingly, they saw to it that the 
local authorities did their duty. 

By enforcing the housing regulations in these two 
instances the Home Service workers helped to make it 
more certain that in the future the law would be 
observed. Thus the interest of the Red Cross in the 
welfare of the families of the men in the service leads 
it from the home to the town, so that ultimately its 
work affects the welfare of everybody. 

When an evil condition is found to exist in a city or 
a state, the first thing that people think of is the passage 
of a bill by the Legislature. Thereupon, everybody is 
satisfied and the public is likely to imagine that what 
was wrong will thereafter be right. Unless, however, 
someone makes it his or her business to see that the 
law is enforced, the city or the state is no better off 
than it was before. 

Here, then, is an additional service which the Red 
Cross is performing. In the course of its work with 
families it comes into touch with every phase of city 
government and also with the many institutions and 
organizations which, with the support of private funds, 
are engaged in public work. Each time that the Home 
Service worker takes a child from a factory or a work- 
shop and sees that he returns to school, she helps to 
make the laws prohibiting child labor effective — and, 
as was indicated in Chapter HI, this returning of 
children to school is constantly being done by the Red 
Cross. The need for such action exists particularly, ac- 
cording to the National Child Labor Committee, in 
several states where there has been a relaxing of the 
enforcement of the Child Labor Laws. 
[51] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

When the sons or the younger brothers of the men in 
the service, being no different from other boys, get into 
trouble by knocking baseballs through neighbors' win- 
dows or by exerting their energy in some way that 
results in a violation of the law, the Red Cross worker 
finds herself taking an interest in the operation of the 
court. And because of this interest, the local magis- 
trate or justice of the peace cannot help but be influ- 
enced to be considerate and thoughtful in his work so 
that here again all children are benefited by reason of 
the activity of the Red Cross. Similarly, it is not 
unlikely that during or after the war many towns will 
develop additional playgrounds because the Home 
Service workers have found through their acquaintance 
with the children of soldiers and sailors that more play- 
grounds are needed. 

There are in every city things of this sort which are 
everybody's business. Home Service, however, touches 
the lives of so many people in so many different ways 
that there is scarcely any part of the life of the town 
with which the Red Cross workers do not become 
acquainted. 

Is the Board of Health capable? After the Home 
Service Section has arranged for the treatment of sick- 
ness in the families of soldiers and sailors it begins to 
feel able to answer this question. There are scores of 
similar questions with which the Red Cross workers 
as a result of their experience in helping the households 
of the men in the army and navy soon find themselves 
to be asking. 

Does the town protect its milk and water supply? 
Is there any system of inspection for this purpose and 
[52] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

are the inspectors efficient? What is being done to 
prevent tuberculosis? Is there a dispensary for the 
treatment of this disease? Is a nurse employed to visit 
and to discover persons suffering from consumption? 
What efforts are being made to reduce infant mortality? 
Is there any place in town where a mother can receive 
instruction about the care of her baby? Is there a 
hospital in the neighborhood? Is it well conducted? 
V/hat facilities does the town offer for the care of 
aged men and women who have no relatives or friends 
to help them? 

What opportunities are there for children to obtain 
recreation? Are there clubs which they can join? Do 
they belong to the Junior Red Cross? Is there a 
troop of Boy Scouts or an organization of Camp Fire 
Girls in town? Is there vacant land that could be 
turned into playgrounds? Must children who have 
broken the law be brought before the same court in 
which criminals appear or is there a juvenile court? 
Where do children stay when they are placed under 
arrest? Is there a special detention home or must they 
be taken to the jail with older offenders who may 
teach them bad habits and start them in criminal 
ways? Must every child who has done wrong be sent 
to an institution or does the magistrate obtain a prom- 
ise of better behavior from the child, and is there 
attached to the court a probation officer who will help 
the child keep his promise? 

What sort of factories are there in the neighborhood? 
Are they healthful and sanitary places in which to 
work? What is the state law regulating the hours of 
labor of women and children? Are women being over- 

[53] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

worked? What industries give families piece-work to 
do in their own homes? What is the rate of pay for 
such home work? 

Is there a part of the town in which immigrants Hve? 
How do their homes compare in sanitation and general 
healthfulness with the other houses of the town? Are 
there churches for these people? What is being done 
to introduce the immigrants to American life? Are 
there classes for the teaching of English? Are these 
prospective citizens becoming naturalized? What part 
are they taking in the affairs of the town? In politics? 

These and many other questions the Home Service 
workers soon find themselves asking.^ In trying to 
solve the problems about which the families of soldiers 
and sailors seek their advice, the representatives of the 
Red Cross come into touch with the things which affect 
the welfare of all the people. And when an intelligent 
group of citizens begin to be interested in the way in 
which the courts, the hospitals, the schools, the insti- 
tutions of the city are conducted, improvement is sure 
to follow. Thus the Home Service of the Red Cross 
may perform a service to the whole town. In helping 
the families of soldiers and sailors it indirectly helps 
everybody. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER VII 

This is a chapter of many questions. How many of them 
can you answer? 

2 A pamphlet which will suggest many other questions of this 
sort is What Social Workers Should Know About Their Own Com- 
munities, by Margaret F. Byington, Russell Sage Foundation, 
130 East 22d Street, New York City. Price, ten cents. 



54 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

Chapter VIII 

The Ultimate Victory 

To the soldier or the sailor Home Service is insur- 
ance against things which may happen to the folks at 
home. Because of the Red Cross he can feel secure 
about his family. He can 'soldier better' with the 
knowledge that should sickness enter his household, 
should loneliness oppress the wife or the mother, should 
the members of the family be unable to manage their 
affairs in his absence, should any accident of fortune or 
misfortune come, the Red Cross is ready to supply 
money when that is needed, credit when that is needed, 
and friends who are needed most of all. Knowing this, 
the men in the service can, as one of them said, "go 
forward with a clear mind." They can do their duty 
with a feeling of assurance that enables them to bear 
their own hardships and dangers with cheerfulness 
and courage. Because of the Red Cross, the morale of 
the army and navy — that thing of the spirit which is 
more important than ships or munitions and without 
which victory is impossible — continues to be strong. 
Such is the part which Home Service is playing in the 
war that is now being fought. 

But the war will not be decided when the peace terms 
are signed. "The true victory," as Sir Baden-Powell 
has said, "lies not so much in the actual tactical gains 
on the battlefield today as in the quality of the men who 
have to carry on the work of the country after the war." 
[55] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

It is this thought which underlies all of the Home 
Service of the Red Cross. Home Service is looking to 
the future. Of what sort of people is the next genera- 
tion to be. Only if the men and women of tomorrow are 
strong in body, in mind, and in spirit will the United 
States have come successfully through the great struggle 
in which it is now engaged. 

Of the men examined in the first draft 23.7 per cent, 
were found to be physically unfit for service in the na- 
tional army. If such a test were to be taken thirty 
years from now, v/ould this percentage be greater or less? 
Only 28 per cent, of the grammar school graduates in 
the United States enter high school.^ Will the number 
be larger or smaller thirty years from now? President 
Wilson's spiritual leadership has been possible only be- 
cause the American people are ready to understand and 
to accept the ideals which he has set forth. Will the 
American people be as ready to rise to new ideals a gen- 
eration hence? Will the families of what President 
Wilson calls "plain people everywhere," the family of 
the neighbor across the way, the family living in the 
next block, the Brown family, the Smith family, just 
the everyday family that is neither millionaire nor 
pauper, the family which has furnished the men who 
are fighting this war, will this family be as sturdy, as 
self-reliant, as devout, will it have in it as much of the 
right stuff thirty years from now as it has today? 

The answer to these questions will decide whether or 
not the United States has been truly victorious in the 
great war. But if we desire to make that answer "Yes" 
we must not risk allowing any sign of weakness or 

1 19 16 Report of United States Commission of Education. 
[56] 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

strain in any household to go without attention. No 
family must, for lack of help, become disorganized and 
less able to do its work in the world. And what families 
are under greater strain now than the families of the 
soldiers and sailors? To what families does the country 
owe more? What group of people, moreover, represents 
so large a part of the population? For the sake of the 
future of the nation as well as for the sake of the morale 
of the soldier and the sailor the Home Service of the Red 
Cross is of vital importance. It is not only an insur- 
ance to the men of the army and navy, it is an insur- 
ance to the whole country. 

When the household is invaded by sickness, when 
things begin to go wrong, when loneliness and despair 
begin to show themselves, then, indeed, the Red Cross 
must be quick to act. It must be quick to act, 
but more than that, it must be long continuing in 
action; for Home Service is not something that is com- 
pleted in a few moments or days as the passage of 
an ordinance by a town council. Home Service is 
not a wholesale process. It does not deal with the 
families of soldiers and sailors in the mass. It is not 
to be compared with a law enacted by Congress which 
affects everybody alike. Home Service does not involve 
the same thing for any two families. To each family 
it tries to mean what that family needs. 

A neighbor comes to the office of the Home Service 
Section with word that a certain family is having a hard 
time of it. A mother writes to say that she is in such 
distress that she cannot continue struggling alone. 
Some member of a family applies to the Red Cross for 
information about the man at the front and soon shows 
[57I 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

that a great deal more than this information is needed. 
In these and in a hundred other ways the Home Service 
Section learns about the difficulties besetting the folks 
at home. 

Its workers begin their Home Service with the reali- 
zation that no two families are alike, that each family- 
has its own hopes, its own ambitions, its own problems, 
its own strengths. Because she appreciates the sacred- 
ness of each family's life, each worker helps each family 
only as she feels that she understands it. It is upon 
this appreciation and this understanding of the indi- 
vidual family that the things described in the preceding 
chapters have been accomplished. But here what was 
said in Chapter V must be rem.embered. One does not 
really accomplish anything for a family. Whatever is 
accomplished is accomplished by the family itself. One 
cannot give a family health, education, or spiritual life. 
One can only offer it opportunity and encouragement. 
The rest remains with the family. It must work out its 
own salvation. Every man must be his own success. 

Home Service, moreover, is not infallible. Its 
workers are only human beings. They have been hur- 
riedly brought together by the emergency of war. They 
have no such miraculous abilities that merely to wish is 
to succeed. Many of them, indeed, are still learning 
the art of helping people. With it all, as the stories in 
this book show, much is being achieved. 

This is true largely because Home Service is not a sud- 
den discovery of the Red Cross. Like the art of healing, 
it has been slowly developing over many years. It 
started with the friendly aid which since all time neigh- 
bor has always given to neighbor. It has been fostered 
[58] 

/ 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

by the church. Half a century ago this gospel of nelgh- 
borliness became the beginnings of that art of helping 
people out of trouble which is known everywhere as 
social work. Through hundreds of organizations in 
every part of the country men and women have been 
putting this art into practice. Thus it is that the 
United States has been better prepared to help the fami- 
lies of its soldiers and sailors than any other nation 
in the world, for in the years before the war there were 
in no country so many citizens engaged voluntarily 
in activities to improve standards of wages, of work, and 
of living, and in similar efforts to enable their fellows to 
take full advantage of the opportunities that democ- 
racy offers. 

When war was declared the nation suddenly appre- 
ciated the fact that social work was essential to 
victory. It realized that the only real progress is pro- 
gress made by everybody. No one must be allowed to 
fall by the wayside for lack of a chance to go forward. 
Home Service is an expression of the quickened ideals 
of the nation. The American Red Cross with an or- 
ganization that reaches into every town and city 
in the United States tells the American people that 
democracy fails unless each individual is able to use the 
opportunities which democracy offers. 

True victory in this war will not be achieved until, in 
the democracy for which we hope to make the world 
safe, each family can develop to the fullest physical, 
mental, and spiritual life of which it is capable. The real 
victory will, indeed, be decided in the next generation. 
This is the victory that the American Red Cross is 
l59l 



THIS SIDE THE TRENCHES 

working to achieve through its Home Service with the 
families of soldiers and sailors this side the trenches. 

REVIEW OF CHAPTER VIII 

1. What does Home Service mean to the soldier and the 

sailor? 

2. What is the purpose that underlies all of Home Ser- 

vice? 

3. (a) What percentage of men in the first draft were 

found to be physically unfit for service? (&) What 
percentage of the grammar school graduates in the 
United States enter high school? 

4. Why is it that, if the children of the United States have 

better opportunity to obtain an education, the 
country will have better citizens in the next genera- 
tion? 

5. (a) When is it desirable to attempt to improve condi- 

tions by legislation? (b) When is a better result 
attained by helping people to help themselves? 

6. How does the Home Service Section learn that fami- 

lies need its help? 

7. What kind of help cannot one give to a famdly and 

what can one give? 

8. Out of what ideals and experience has Home Service 

developed? 

9. What is the only real kind of national progress? 
10. What is the ultimate victory? 



60] 



DOUGLAS C. MCMURTRIE 
NEW YORK 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



